SoftBank (TYO:9984), the tech-financier powerhouse of Japan, reported a surprise fiscal third-quarter loss on Wednesday, citing write-downs in investments made through its Vision Fund Arm.

SoftBank reported a net loss of $2.4 billion in the October-December quarter, struck by unrealized valuation, or paper, losses in investments made in South Korea's online marketplace Coupang, in China's ride-hailing company Didi Global, and in the Norway-based warehouse automator outfit AutoStore.

The third-quarter valuation losses come just as SoftBank publicly committed to huge AI projects in the US and Japan.

SoftBank has lined up to help finance the estimated $500 billion building of the US Stargate Project, a network of gigantic data centers to operate AI software announced recently by President Donald Trump. US tech outfits Oracle (ORCL) and Sam Altman's OpenAI are part of the Stargate Project.

In Japan, SoftBank will help finance Cristal Intelligence, a joint venture with OpenAI to expand AI services to Japanese corporations.

Of the Stargate and Cristal intelligence ventures, Yoshimitsu Goto, board member, said the efforts would "reinforce our leadership in the AI revolution. We are not just imagining the future of AI, we are actively building it," in a video prepared for investor relations audiences.

Goto noted that SoftBank's net asset value (the value of the company's investments, minus liabilities) reached 29.3 trillion yen ($190.1 billion) at the end of 2024, a record high, and modestly up from the previous quarter.

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